Once Again, Ben Carson Accidentally Throws Donald Trump Under the Bus

Ben Carson is doing his best to support Donald Trump, but he continues to be a less-than-perfect surrogate. The former neurosurgeon’s latest series of unintentional slights arrived Thursday in the form of an interview with CNN, in which Carson found newly insulting ways to suggest that Trump may not be the best candidate for president.

Carson quickly stuck his foot in it during an appearance on At This Hour, after host John Berman asked him if Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski should be “running the show” after he allegedly grabbed a female reporter and was subsequently charged with misdemeanor battery.

“Well I mean a lot of people have been charged with various things. That doesn't necessarily mean that we need to demonize them,” Carson said. Then, addressing Berman directly, he added: “You've probably been charged with something too, maybe with a misdemeanor or something. It doesn't mean that you're an evil, horrible person.”

Berman then asked him to clarify his previous statement that there were “better people” than Trump who could be presidential candidates. Carson’s response was that people shouldn’t think so hard about it, since, he argued, there are no other options.

“I don’t think you have to really think about that. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing,” he said. “There are better people than me at neurosurgery. There are better people than you at being a broadcaster. There are better people at everything. But what we have to do is we have to utilize what we have. We have to make the best of it, we have to improve it to the point where it is capable of being successful. That's what we should do in every field and in every endeavor.”

When Kate Bolduan pressed him to name a better candidate, Carson demurred, saying, “I don’t think that’s a useful place to go . . . if you drop a brick off of a building, it’s going to fall. Obviously, there's always going to be someone who’s better at virtually anything. That doesn’t mean that you’re not good. But of course, there are always better people at anything. That should be an obvious statement.”

In Iowa last January, Trump regales voters with a humanizing personal anecdote about how he once bit his right index finger after mistaking it for a half-eaten French fry.

Photo: By Jerry Mennenga/ZUMA Press/Corbis.

A wax figure of “Duke” Wayne looks on in disgust as Trump strains to reach his fingers all the way around daughter Aissa Wayne’s frankly rather petite shoulder. (Fun fact: you could load the barrel of Wayne’s pistol with 14 of Trump’s pinkies.)

Photo: By Tannen Maury/EPA/Corbis.

As Trump talks straight through a lunch-hour town hall in February, hungry New Hampshire voters appear mesmerized by the five chicken-tender-like appendages radiating from his sausage-patty-size palm.

Photo: From The Washington Post/Getty Images.

At this 2005 gala, Trump, thinking quickly, uses both hands to keep wife Melania from getting a good look at the size of a single Puff Daddy hand.

Photo: By Johnny Nunez/WireImage/Getty Images.

Trump’s delicate right hand is nearly crushed by his nine-year-old daughter Ivanka’s huge, burly mitt at a 1991 event.

In Iowa last January, Trump regales voters with a humanizing personal anecdote about how he once bit his right index finger after mistaking it for a half-eaten French fry.

By Jerry Mennenga/ZUMA Press/Corbis.

A wax figure of “Duke” Wayne looks on in disgust as Trump strains to reach his fingers all the way around daughter Aissa Wayne’s frankly rather petite shoulder. (Fun fact: you could load the barrel of Wayne’s pistol with 14 of Trump’s pinkies.)

By Tannen Maury/EPA/Corbis.

As Trump talks straight through a lunch-hour town hall in February, hungry New Hampshire voters appear mesmerized by the five chicken-tender-like appendages radiating from his sausage-patty-size palm.

From The Washington Post/Getty Images.

Greeting voters in Iowa City, Trump surreptitiously compares his hand to a baby’s, a smile of satisfaction and relief slowly spreading across his face.

From Bloomberg/Getty Images.

At the 1990 grand opening of the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, wee hands try to summon a genie from a giant lamp. “It’s the motion,” Trump gamely jokes.

An interesting optical illusion: Trump’s left hand is actually in the foreground of the picture!

By Chris Cassidy/Getty Images.

More ugly politics in South Carolina: Trump is forced to refute rumors, traced back to the Cruz campaign, that his fingers aren’t long enough for Christian prayer.

By Andrew Cowan/Scottish Parliament/Getty Images.

Trump pretends to enjoy a pork chop on a stick at the 2015 Iowa State Fair, probably the one place on Earth where people won’t mistake a pork chop on a stick for Trump’s third hand.

By Win McNamee/Getty Images.

In costume with actress Megan Mullally at the 2005 Emmys, Trump wows an audience of hardened entertainment professionals by wrapping his fingers nearly all the way around a pitchfork.

By Mathew Imaging/FilmMagic/Getty Images.

Some pundits have attributed candidate Trump’s hawkishness to the fact that, even though his fingers have as many joints as a normal man’s, they remain at least an inch short of being able to form a proper peace sign.

From The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images.

Nothing much to say about the fingers in this picture; just curious why Trump’s “anus mouth” face hasn’t also become a thing.

From CNBC/Getty Images.

To this day, clubhouse attendants maintain that Trump had to be outfitted with a Babe Ruth Jr. Youth League glove for this 1991 appearance at Yankee Stadium.

From the Donaldson Collection/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images.

At this 2005 gala, Trump, thinking quickly, uses both hands to keep wife Melania from getting a good look at the size of a single Puff Daddy hand.

By Johnny Nunez/WireImage/Getty Images.

Trump’s delicate right hand is nearly crushed by his nine-year-old daughter Ivanka’s huge, burly mitt at a 1991 event.